Pad Thai Delight

Well folks, I’ve found it - my new favorite restaurant. It’s called Galanga by Cozy Thai, and it’s on College Avenue right next to Subway. I’ve lived in State College for eighteen years and never knew it existed until this weekend.

Accompanied by a new friend, I entered Galanga a slightly nervous outlook because I had never tried Thai food before. Because I was a novice to the world of Thai, I asked the waiter what he recommended. I've found that this is the best technique when trying something new because most waiters at restaurants have a pretty good idea of what's good and what to stay away from. The waiter chose the Chicken Pad Thai for me, which he said was a good beginner meal. Here’s what my plate looked like when it first arrived:

I promise this looked better in person.

In reality it looked more like this - yum!

I won’t lie, the cabbage on the top sort of scared me, and so I took a tentative first bite. But thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised! It turned out to taste very similar to Chicken Lo Mein, which is lucky because that’s one of the only kinds of Chinese food I like, seeing as I usually don't branch out much with different kinds of food.

The Chicken Pad Thai I had consisted of noodles, cabbage, chicken, onions, garlic, what I believe were bean sprouts, and peanuts. As I continued eating, the peanuts became a little overbearing for me, because they were not evenly mixed throughout the dish. But this was not enough of a deterrent for me to stop eating!

I eventually did stop eating simply because the portion they gave me was too big to finish. I would definitely recommend trying Pad Thai, and I would especially recommend bringing a new friend with you to try it. It was certainly a bonding moment for both of us to taste something so different from what we're used to. I know I will be heading back to Galanga to branch out from their "beginner meals" soon!